These are the 2 shittiest, most overpriced cars on the market today

> Mercedes is still a luxury brand in the US and dont sell bellow the C class here

Interesting. I wonder why? They're perfectly happy to sell them here.

It could be because what the US thinks about a brand reverberates around the world, thus they're not keen to sell the lower value cars there.

I don't know. I know VW have branding issues in the US that they don't have here.

>And branding does have appeal because it indicates quality.
>branding does have appeal
>because it indicates quality
>branding
>indicates quality
See, that's where you are wrong. Dead wrong.
I wouldn't go as far as to say they are the opposite but they have absolutely NOTHING to do with each other.
Also: I read a pretty positive review of the mazda 3 2.2 diesel the other day. you might want to add that to your list as well. anyway, good luck with making a decision.

wrong

>See, that's where you are wrong. Dead wrong.
>I wouldn't go as far as to say they are the opposite but they have absolutely NOTHING to do with each other.

Can you elaborate? Do you mean that branding is primarily about a display of wealth?

If you can be convinced to pay significantly more for something because of how you'll look to the guy sitting behind you in traffic just know that some old white guys raising a toast to success of their sales strategy.

Also, if someone really is successful and wants to flaunt it, why not buy one of the actual luxury cars these companies sell?

they sell the CLA which is a piece of shit

2.2 diesels oil pump can die which kills the engine. If you live in Germany it's no problem, they change it in warranty. If you live in Hungary like me they say it's not covered, the new engine is 5-7000€.

Nah bud, this is worse.

Attached: 1200px-2014_Audi_A1_(8X_MY14)_1.4_TFSI_Attraction_Sportback_5-door_hatchback_(2015-07-09)_01[1].jpg (1200x802, 223K)

>Mercedes is still a luxury brand in the US
Its funny. In germany all the street cleaning vehicles, garbage trucks, firefighting vehicles, utility and military vehicles, trucks and buses are "luxury" mercedes with a big fat star.

I see a lot of mercedes vans here in the US too, and even some trucks. Honestly it’s only a luxury brand in the middle of fucking nowhere arkansas. In a big city every office worker and secretary has a new c class or even a slightly used e class. The only actual luxury mercs here are the s and sl, even the amg’s are mostly leased by people who can’t afford them but feel compelled to show off

I've never been in an A3 but they do look hot man.
Specially the ones from 2005-2010

and in the U.S. american muscle cars are considered mid-low tier, but they are revered in the europoor countries, go figure

Attached: 1420584032374.png (480x480, 116K)

They don't look great IMO. The A Class looks great at least. The Audi A3 looks stunted, especially when it's in that douchebag white.

the big car makers have this problem
they cant get away with making a shit box

Attached: 02.jpg (1501x1080, 751K)

Attached: mercedes W168-.jpg (2048x1536, 410K)

worst thing to ever wear an audi badge.
especially the diesel ones. the stereo doesnt even go loud enough to cover the MASSIVE fucking engine noise and rattling
i have never been more infuriated by a car

Funny thing is that Audi is basically a Leon.

I'd love to see the Audi marketing team, over the past 10 years they've managed to convince people they're on par with Merc or BMW.

>Audi A1
>VW Polo
>Škoda Fabia
>SEAT Ibiza
Literally what the fuck is VAG doing

I had a similar experience like this a few months ago.

I spent months looking for an Evo X, but when I realised getting a good one for a decent price wasn't going to happen I started shopping around. I tried the following cars.

Golf R.
Audi S3
A45 AMG
Focus RS
FK2 Type R
WRX STi
Octavia III vRS
Seat Leon Curpa.

The Golf, S3, and A45 where all pretty underwhelming. They were fast, and great cars, but for the price, and the whole hot hatch thing, they were underwhelming. It was obvious they were made for non-car people to brag about down the pub.

The Focus RS was objectively the best of the lot. But I couldn't find one for a price I was happy paying. £35k for a Focus made me wince, and that's Mustang money, which in the UK is a more interesting car. So I ditched that.

The Octavia was good, but too sensible. I wanted something a bit more exciting. And the Leon Cupra was awful. The car itself was good. But the service I got from Seat sales people was horrible, the interior was dull and far too similar to the regular Leon, and overall I was disappointing.

I really wanted to love the STi, but every time I looked at one, without fail it had electrical problems, whether the battery was gone, or the interior lights weren't working, etc etc. So in the end. I bought the Civic. It was exciting, and ticked 9/10 of my boxes. Even if I had to sallow my pride and buy a brand I didn't want to buy. In the end I fell in love with it.

tl;dr.

Modern hot hatches are boring safe spaces for fat middle aged blokes who want to brag down the pub and never drive the car for fun.

Attached: IMG_2264.jpg (4032x3024, 1.88M)

Ibiza is GOAT

No M140i?

Straight 6
RWD or AWD
Manual
More power than you can ever need.

Bad experience with BMW and a previous 330 I owned. And them not wanting to honour a warranty after a catastrophic engine failure. The car was less than 10 months old. This put me off having another BMW.

this desu

Hot hatches haven't been good for over 15 years at least. They're all too heavy and full of shit, you may as well save some cash and buy something a bit more comfy and less plastic clad.

The mid 80s - mid 90s hatches are GOAT and we'll never see anything like it again unless someone like Dacia or Hyundai want to make something crazy (what would they have to lose?)

Maximizing profits

No Megane RS?

>inb4 >French cars

Too slow compared to it's rivals. Especially for a car so track focused.

Problem lies with the dealer. I'd have suggested to go to another one and bicker about it until they contact Munich. Most problems that reach Munich get solved without a fee most of the time. They're very accomodating, dealerships aren't tho. Chances are your dealership was too lazy to write a proper warranty claim or didn't even bother to. Also, always go to a branch/subsidiary dealership. They're owned by BMW and mostly focus on service and customer satisfaction unlike the privately owned BMW dealerships.

It's down on power compared to the rest but it's silly fast on a track, probably because of how focused it is, as you said. I guess that'd make it pretty uncomfortable to daily.

Anyway, I feel like nowadays the real fun hatches are found a segment lower. Polo GTI/Ibiza Cupra/Fabia vRS, Clio RS, 208 GTi, Fiesta ST, Mini JCW and so on. The "mainstream" ones all seem to be number-chasing machines nowadays.

I did exactly this.

I took it to an entirely different franchised dealer, one with closer national ties to BMW. Got the same issues. But BMW did offer to pay 50% of the bill as a "good will gesture". I still had to be 5 grand towards a new engine.

It's still behind the Cupra and FK2 in terms of FWD track times. Granted it's probably a little more fun and less serious as those. But yeah. I have to daily this, so the Civic and the Focus RS had the best balance of track and road in one package.

...

Surprised you didn't look at the Scirocco R user.

I test drove the S3, and also golf R and found both quite numb to drive. They were fast for sure, but lacked any fun.

The scirocco R however felt a lot lighter in the front end due to the lack of awd meaning less weight, and because of the awd actually took a bit of concentration to drive hard and handled amazingly.

Attached: IMG_20180304_181402_HHT.jpg (3000x4000, 2.12M)

semi related,

I'm getting a 2010 audi tt convertible in a few months off a family friend for super cheap. Never drove audi before, what should i know before getting it?

I wouldn't say revered, sure people think they look good and powerful, but that's just because they are uncommon. Truth is they are overpriced and not that good/practical for European way of life.

I really wanted 5 doors. Otherwise I would have looked.

CLA is meant to give off the illusion of "luxury brand" while actually being a cheap POS for college grads and minorities to trick the people around them into thinking they have money.

A-class Mercs are just cheap cars made by a good manufacturer; everyone knows they are cheap hatchback commuters that just happen to have a Mercedes badge. no one buys them trying to trick the people around them.

i dated a rich British girl whose family exclusively drove Mercedes, she had zero interest in cars but them bought her an A class just so she could drive something, which of course she totaled a couple months later on a roundabout.

Try the Giulietta QV. It may lack a bit of power (which is fixed with a simple tune pulling nearly 300 hp) in comparison to the ones you mentioned, but I think it should deliver a bunch of fun if thats what you're after. They're basically dirt cheap too, they go for like 10k where I live.

Attached: articleLeadwide-the-alfa-romeo-giulietta-qv-adds-performance-to-th1m7dbx.jpg (750x422, 68K)

Trying to find a decent Alfa is like a needle in a haystack where I am. Which is I ended up with the Civic.

where you at dude?

>CLA is meant to give off the illusion of "luxury brand" while actually being a cheap POS for college grads
Is this why every time I see a CLA, the person driving it is literally retarded?

North East England.

just buy a golf,

just wanted to say i appreciate the fact that u graced us with a non anti-american mention.. mad respect for u euro-user.. have a great day sir

In alot of euro countries you can get a polo GTI that shits on every C segment ever

STi is the only performance car in your list. You can't buy used performance cars, of course they will be abused. You have to buy such a car new.
the rest are shiny shitboxes noone cares about.

>Using dials and tablet stereos as measures of quality and worth.
You are exactly their market, they just want to convince you finance a more expensive model once you're already interested in their brand... Or buy an A3 and trade-up at a loss when you magically have more income one day

As someone who is currently on the market for a small luxury car and leaning towards the Lexus CT200h this is a very interesting thread, indeed. Thanks, OP.

Attached: x17-06-14-lexus-ct-2017-front.jpg.pagespeed.ic.zEYCR2CNoi.jpg (1000x558, 61K)

Just get the Auris

>GERMAN ENGIDERP

Attached: 1494850017098.png (450x450, 374K)

Attached: 1355309766724.jpg (622x562, 53K)

But I have an allergy to shiny black plastic, one of the reason I like the Lexus hatchback.

I'm speaking from experience here so hear me out. Only 'hot hatch' that makes sense for the money was old mazda 3 mps (mazdaspeed 3), maybe kia pro cee'd and that's it.

Anything else is more expensive than it's worth it and it's stupid to get car assembled from quality parts that is still only fwd in its nature. Even if you think you're making a good compromise in getting it, you're just falling for a meme.

You gotta get a proper performance rwd or awd car to really enjoy it and then get a separate daily car which can be fwd, automatic, either small for shopping or bigger for family.

I know it's hard to understand and accept, you can't have it all at once. But trust me, if you ever sit down in proper performance car you will regret falling for a meme. Better to stay put and do it properly or not do it at all. It took me 5 years to realize it but god I'm glad I got rid of my stupid 'hot hatch' now. And boy, where could I have been not sinking the money in that shitbox... hot hatches and crossovers are the worst meme cars ever happening to the industry.

I'm the guy who bought the Civic above.

And I done the exact opposite. I went from have two cars, one performance orientated and one a daily, and what you have just said may have been relevant a few years ago. But it just isn't now.

Yeah sure, for the likes of the Golf R and S3 and A45. I've agree. But with cars like the Focus RS, and (slightly biased) the FK2 and FK8 Civic. you really can have both. My biggest fear from having a rwd weekend car, and consolidating into a single car, was compromising somewhere, but I genuinely feel I haven't. Sure I can't go sideways, but I wasn't too bothered about that anyways. I've never driven a more fun fwd car then this.

I always used to think putting anything more then 300hp through the front wheels was a waste. But I genuinely have a smile from ear to ear when I put my foot down and my front wheels just spin. It's weird yeah, but it's just the satisfaction of having a a practical car, that's been turned into a utter piss take, and can still turn up at a track and put a lot of proper performance cars to shame. But I guess that's just me.

Attached: 240_F_93394072_RhOzszERSYLwHvWYIMn5EvFKuBG1qgS7.jpg (360x240, 14K)

How many miles on it?

I like Golfs but they suffer the same issue.

No worries user

> Judging a car by a feature you use every day
I bet you've ripped all the passenger seats out of your highly tuned shitwagon.

I'm not actually buying, just judging. I'm gonna ride my POS car until the wheels fall off then buy something nicer from this list - the Leon is looking to be my first choice at the minute but we'll see two years down the line.